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GitHub Backend

docs/dev-tools/backends/github.md

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GitHub Backend

You may install GitHub release assets directly using the github backend. This backend downloads release assets from GitHub repositories and is ideal for tools that distribute pre-built binaries through GitHub releases.

The code for this is inside of the mise repository at ./src/backend/github.rs.

Usage

The following installs the latest version of ripgrep from GitHub releases and sets it as the active version on PATH:

sh
$ mise use -g github:BurntSushi/ripgrep
$ rg --version
ripgrep 14.1.1

The version will be set in ~/.config/mise/config.toml with the following format:

toml
[tools]
"github:BurntSushi/ripgrep" = "latest"

Tool Options

The following tool-options are available for the github backend—these go in [tools] in mise.toml.

Asset Autodetection

When no asset_pattern is specified, mise automatically selects the best asset for your platform. The system scores assets based on:

  • OS compatibility (linux, macos, windows)
  • Architecture compatibility (x64, arm64, x86, arm)
  • Libc variant (gnu or musl for Linux, msvc for Windows)
  • Archive format preference (tar.gz, zip, etc.)
  • Build type (avoids debug/test builds)

For most tools, you can simply install without specifying patterns:

sh
mise install github:user/repo

::: tip The autodetection logic is implemented in src/backend/asset_matcher.rs, which is shared by both the GitHub and GitLab backends. :::

asset_pattern

Specifies the pattern to match against release asset names. This is useful when there are multiple assets for your OS/arch combination or when you need to override autodetection.

toml
[tools]
"github:cli/cli" = { version = "latest", asset_pattern = "gh_*_linux_x64.tar.gz" }

version_prefix

Specifies a custom version prefix for release tags. By default, mise handles the common v prefix (e.g., v1.0.0), but some repositories use different prefixes like release-, version-, or no prefix at all.

When version_prefix is configured, mise will:

  • Filter available versions with the prefix and strip it
  • Add the prefix when searching for releases
  • Try both prefixed and non-prefixed versions during installation
toml
[tools]
"github:user/repo" = { version = "latest", version_prefix = "release-" }

Examples:

  • With version_prefix = "release-":
    • User specifies 1.0.0 → mise searches for release-1.0.0 tag
    • Available versions show as 1.0.0 (prefix stripped)
  • With version_prefix = "" (empty string):
    • User specifies 1.0.0 → mise searches for 1.0.0 tag (no prefix)
    • Useful for repositories that don't use any prefix

Platform-specific Asset Patterns

For different asset patterns per platform:

toml
[tools."github:cli/cli"]
version = "latest"

[tools."github:cli/cli".platforms]
linux-x64 = { asset_pattern = "gh_*_linux_x64.tar.gz" }
macos-arm64 = { asset_pattern = "gh_*_macOS_arm64.tar.gz" }

Multiple Assets from the Same Release

The GitHub backend installs one release asset for each tool. If a repository publishes multiple binaries as separate assets in the same release, define one tool alias per binary and point each alias at the same github:owner/repo backend. Then configure each aliased tool with its own asset_pattern.

toml
[tool_alias]
tool-a = "github:owner/repo"
tool-b = "github:owner/repo"

[tools.tool-a]
version = "latest"
asset_pattern = "tool-a-*"

[tools.tool-b]
version = "latest"
asset_pattern = "tool-b-*"

checksum

Verify the downloaded file with a checksum:

toml
[tools."github:owner/repo"]
version = "1.0.0"
asset_pattern = "tool-1.0.0-x64.tar.gz"
checksum = "sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6789..."

Instead of specifying the checksum here, you can use mise.lock to manage checksums.

Platform-specific Checksums

toml
[tools."github:cli/cli"]
version = "latest"

[tools."github:cli/cli".platforms]
linux-x64 = {
  asset_pattern = "gh_*_linux_x64.tar.gz",
  checksum = "sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6789...",
}
macos-arm64 = {
  asset_pattern = "gh_*_macOS_arm64.tar.gz",
  checksum = "sha256:b2c3d4e5f6789...",
}

size

Verify the downloaded asset size:

toml
[tools]
"github:cli/cli" = { version = "latest", size = "12345678" }

strip_components

Number of directory components to strip when extracting archives:

toml
[tools]
"github:cli/cli" = { version = "latest", strip_components = 1 }

::: info If strip_components is not explicitly set, mise will automatically detect when to apply strip_components = 1. This happens when the extracted archive contains exactly one directory at the root level and no files. This is common with tools like ripgrep that package their binaries in a versioned directory (e.g., ripgrep-14.1.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/rg). The auto-detection ensures the binary is placed directly in the install path where mise expects it. :::

bin

Rename the downloaded binary to a specific name. This is useful when downloading single binaries that have platform-specific names:

toml
[tools."github:docker/compose"]
version = "2.29.1"
bin = "docker-compose"  # Rename the downloaded binary to docker-compose

::: info When downloading single binaries (not archives), mise automatically removes OS/arch suffixes from the filename. For example, docker-compose-linux-x86_64 becomes docker-compose automatically. Use the bin option only when you need a specific custom name. :::

rename_exe

Rename the executable after extraction from an archive. This is useful when the archive contains a binary with a platform-specific name that you want to rename:

toml
[tools."github:yt-dlp/yt-dlp"]
version = "latest"
asset_pattern = "yt-dlp_linux.zip"
rename_exe = "yt-dlp"  # Rename the extracted binary to yt-dlp

::: tip Use rename_exe for archives where the binary inside has a different name than desired. Use bin for single binary downloads (non-archives). :::

no_app

Skip macOS .app bundle assets during autodetection and prefer standalone CLI binaries instead. This is useful when a repository provides both a macOS .app bundle (often an Xcode extension or GUI application) and a standalone command-line tool:

toml
[tools."github:nicklockwood/SwiftFormat"]
version = "latest"
rename_exe = "swiftformat"
no_app = true  # Skip SwiftFormat.for.Xcode.app.zip, use swiftformat.zip instead

When no_app = true:

  • Assets containing .app. (e.g., Tool.app.zip, Tool.for.Xcode.app.zip) are penalized during autodetection
  • Standalone archives (e.g., tool.zip, tool-macos.tar.gz) are preferred
  • Only affects macOS; has no effect on Linux/Windows

::: info Without this option, mise's autodetection might select .app bundles on macOS, which can be problematic if the bundle contains a GUI application or Xcode extension rather than a standalone CLI tool. :::

bin_path

::: v-pre Specify the directory containing binaries within the extracted archive, or where to place the downloaded file. This supports Tera templating with variables like {{ version }}, {{ os }}, {{ arch }}, and arch aliases ({{ darwin_os }}, {{ amd64_arch }}, {{ x86_64_arch }}, {{ gnu_arch }}): :::

toml
[tools."github:cli/cli"]
version = "latest"
bin_path = "cli-{{ version }}/bin" # expands to cli-1.0.0/bin

Binary path lookup order:

  1. If bin_path is specified, use that directory
  2. If bin_path is not set, look for a bin/ directory in the install path
  3. If the install path root contains an executable file, use the install path root
  4. If no bin/ directory exists, search subdirectories for bin/ directories
  5. If no bin/ directories are found, searches immediate subdirectories for any executable files. If an executable is found directly within a subdirectory, that entire subdirectory is considered a binary path.
  6. If no executables are found, use the root of the extracted directory

filter_bins

Comma-separated list of binaries to symlink into a filtered .mise-bins directory. This is useful when the tool comes with extra binaries that you do not want to expose on PATH.

toml
[tools]
"github:jgm/pandoc" = { version = "latest", filter_bins = "pandoc" }

When enabled:

  • A .mise-bins subdirectory is created with symlinks only to the specified binaries
  • Other binaries (like pandoc-lua or pandoc-server) are not exposed on PATH

api_url

For GitHub Enterprise or self-hosted GitHub instances, specify the API URL:

toml
[tools]
"github:myorg/mytool" = { version = "latest", api_url = "https://github.mycompany.com/api/v3" }

prerelease

By default, releases flagged prerelease: true on GitHub are excluded from mise ls-remote and from latest resolution. Set prerelease = true to include them:

toml
[tools]
"github:myorg/mytool" = { version = "latest", prerelease = true }

When set:

  • Pre-release tags (e.g. v1.0.0-rc1, v0.1.2-dev.86) appear in mise ls-remote.
  • latest resolves to the newest version across stable and pre-releases, rather than taking the GitHub /releases/latest shortcut (which returns whichever release the repo owner has marked as "Latest" — usually the newest non-prerelease, but it can be any release they've pinned via the API).
  • Fuzzy version queries (e.g. 1.2) match pre-release tags under that prefix.

Useful for repositories whose active releases are all pre-releases (e.g. internal tools shipping continuous dev builds), or when you need to track a project's release candidates. Draft releases are always excluded. Has no effect on GitLab/Forgejo.

Self-hosted GitHub

If you are using a self-hosted GitHub instance, set the api_url tool option. For authentication, see GitHub Tokens.

Supported GitHub Syntax

  • GitHub shorthand for latest release version: github:cli/cli
  • GitHub shorthand for specific release version: github:cli/[email protected]

Settings

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